Wednesday, January 27, 2010

On Twitter, half of the trending topics were Apple related, 6 of 10 if you include Kindle, which Apple's new iPad will be competing against.

Apple's launch of it's new gadget had plenty of buzz and sky-high expectations. While it remains to be seen if this "meso" technology between smartphone and laptop will be significant in terms of media, society, and technology, what's clear is that Apple is either clueless or shrewd when it comes to branding. The video on the Apple site has the following gem:: "I don't have to change myself to fit the product—it fits me." {rimshot} Add I smell at the very least a subversive copywriter.

I'm curious to see how this evolves as a new multimedia platform. Rumours were floating around of a TV tuner and videoconferencing, but it looks like those may be in future iterations. The current generation doesn't even have Flash support. The price point is lower than I thought it would be, but I was expecting more multimedia features. Pricing starts at $499 US. Here's the rundown from Endgadget::

"It starts at $499 for 16GB, 32GB for $599, and $699 64GB. Adding 3G costs a $130 per model, so the most expensive model (64GB / 3G) is $829. The WiFi-only model will ship in 60 days, and the 3G models will come in 90."

Apple is the butt of many a joke on Twitter today for the brand name, as evident here. Is this buzz a good thing? What about the adage that any PR is good PR. I'm not so sure. If the iPad was a showstopper, I'd think differently, but I'm afraid the ridicule is coming from opinion leaders and reinforcing the "meh" factor. If the content and user experience are there, Apple may have the last laugh.

Update {27 January 2010, 6:23PM}:: Huffington Post found a link to defunct Mad-TV's fauxmercial parody for iPad from a few years back::